ROCKPORT, Texas — In this coastal community decimated by Hurricane Harvey, officials are starting to have conversations about rebuilding, now that utilities and water services have been largely restored in the city.

The roof of Rockport City Hall was damaged during the storm, allowing the small municipal building to fill with water. City Manager Kevin Carruth said at the very least the building will be gutted, but, pending the results of a safety inspection, the entire structure might have to be knocked down.

In the meantime, city officials have been working out of the city’s service center, a small green structure in the woods off Route 35. Of the city’s nearly 130 employees, 28 were displaced from their homes. Long hours during and after Hurricane Harvey meant that many employees were working – and living – at the center.

“They say you don’t know people until you live with them,” said Mayor Pro Tem Pat Rios during a city council meeting on Tuesday night. “I know a lot of these folks very well now.”

City officials have been working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Texas leaders and employees from other cities and states to assess the damage caused by the storm, clear debris and look to start the rebuilding process.

The priority for Rockport has been to relaunch utility services, clear roadways and ensure that there is safe drinking water. Late Wednesday night a boil water notice was lifted for the town.

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Rockport Mayor C.J Wax during an emergency City Council meeting regarding Hurricane Harvey cleanup at the Rockport Service Center on Friday, Sept. 1, 2017.(Photo: Courtney Sacco/Caller-Times)

Hotels and apartments in Rockport were damaged by the storm and Mayor C.J. Wax said there are currently no temporary housing options available within city limits. He acknowledged that people were likely frustrated by slow movement from officials, but complete recovering is several years away.

“The city will do everything it can to make the city of Rockport better than the city of Rockport was three weeks ago – but be patient,” Wax said. “It’s a very long process and we are just beginning…It is a marathon, not a sprint.”

Wax said 35 percent of the community was completely destroyed by the storm, but "we're getting a little better every day."

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An overhead view of Copano Cove in Rockport, TX on August 30, 2017. Homes sustained major damage from Hurricane Harvey.(Photo: Rachel Denny Clow/Caller-Times)

Pam Dixon Frost, a 68-year-old real estate agent in Rockport, said she moved into a new house with her husband earlier this year, which survived the storm with minimal damage. But their old house, situated between Rockport and Port Aransas, was severely damaged.

"We're a lot better off than other people, we have a place to live," said Frost, who was trying to sell the couple's old house. She said they were waiting for a structural engineer to say whether the house needed to be demolished or whether it is salvageable.

"I know there's no way to hurry it up, and there's patience," she said. "It's just very difficult not knowing. Uncertainty is really hard to deal with, regardless of where you are on that scale of whether you've lost everything or part of everything."

Volunteers with the Building Officials Association of Texas have descended on Rockport to help conduct damage assessments of all the structures in town. Jim Olk, director of the group’s disaster response team, said teams of officials – including people from structural engineers and society of architects, survey the outside of buildings and decide whether it is safe to return or where the most serious damage is.

The information is reported to FEMA and the city, which can help ensure contractors are addressing the most serious problems with a structure and to get a better idea of the damage caused city-wide by the storm.

“It’s just part of what we do,” Olk said. “As city employees, we’re really public servants anyway, and this just expands our desire to serve and help out any way we can – especially in those areas devastated by a disaster.”

Rockport officials are also looking to enact some levels of consumer protection when it comes to contractors available to help with rebuilding.

Contractors are required to register with the city’s building department, presenting proof of insurance, a state license and other required permits. Since they launched the registration program, more than 500 contractors have registered with the city, including Chris Zeiter of Zeiter Construction, who moved to Rockport in 2015 with his family.

“I think it’s great,” Zeiter said of the registration requirement. “It’s a small hassle for us to go through just to try and protect homeowners and make sure that they get reputable contractors.”

Wax said the city has already sent several unregistered contractors away since launching the registration program, “and we don’t miss them either.”

Rockport Police Chief Tim Jayroe encouraged residents to call the non-emergency number to report people working without proper identification using their driver’s license number.

“You can’t really run somebody out of town, but we encouraged them to leave,” he said of the city’s efforts to discourage the practice.

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Rockport City Council holds an emergency meeting regarding Hurricane Harvey cleanup at the Rockport Service Center on Friday, Sept. 1, 2017.(Photo: Courtney Sacco/Caller-Times)

The city is working to flood-proof houses as much as possible during the rebuilding period, requiring homes and buildings damaged significantly during the storm to be built to meet the most recent standards.

Amanda Torres, Rockport’s community planner and floodplain administrator, said any structures damaged within 50 percent or more of its value must be rebuilt to meet current codes and regulations – regardless of when it was constructed.

Repairs can be made to buildings with more minor damage that are “sufficient for whenever that structure was first built,” Torres said.

According to City Manager Carruth, most damage in Rockport was in older homes. Newer structures built using more modern requirements and materials tended to survive with minor scrapes and bruises.

The city’s hope of flood-proofing homes mirrors efforts at the state-level to ensure that new construction can “maximize resiliency and sustainability” from “future catastrophic weather events.”

The state’s Harvey response team has plans to establish a group to review infrastructure assessments and other data collected from storm-ravaged areas to recommend improvements to construction and other best practices.

“The bottom line is that we cannot just rebuild what was damaged,” read a report from the response team, published on a new website detailing storm recovery efforts.“We must ‘future-proof’ what is built new to mitigate future problems to the greatest extent possible.”

Wax said officials are trying to give residents some semblance of normalcy.

A portion of the Rockport Center for the Arts' roof was lost when Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Rockport Aug. 25, 2017. A benefit show will be hosted by the Corpus Christi Songwriters Sunday Sept. 10 at the Executive Surf Club.(Photo: Contributed photo)

Officials with the parks and leisure department have been assisting the public works department with repairs and clearing roadways, but now they are turning their attention to the city's many parks.

“Our goal is to open up our most popular areas as quickly as we can so we can get our community out to have some fun,” said Rick Martinez, director of parks and leisure services.

Rockport will also still host its Tropical Christmas Festival in December, which features live entertainment, Christmas tree decorating contests and photos with a Tropical-themed Santa.

"Even though it may not be what it was, I'd like to have the council consider leaving some sort of fun event on our schedule, because I'd hate to be the one that says Christmas is canceled," Martinez said.

Madlin Mekelburg is a reporter with the USA Today Austin Bureau; she may be reached at 512-479-6606; mmekelburg@elpasotimes.com; @madlinmek on Twitter.